Pabst Can Provide Instant Recognition For Cnc Baseball

Sunday Focus

When Tab Pabst was 14 years old, he traveled about one mile every afternoon from Syms Junior High School in Hampton to Kecoughtan High to practice with the varsity baseball team.

When he was 18, he woke up at 4 a.m., and drove to Old Dominion University for a full day of classes and baseball practice.

When he turned 19, he had had enough of the early to rise, late to bed routine and a daily commute that took 30 minutes, if the Hampton Roads Tunnel wasn't backed up.

He checked out of ODU after his sophomore year of 1989, drove 10 miles across the Peninsula and checked into Christopher Newport College in Newport News.

This was not your average transfer, though. CNC didn't just gain a 5-10, 190-pound physical education major who has a problem controlling his weight during the hunting season.

CNC gained one of the top professional baseball prospects in the area, a pitcher, infielder and designated hitter who excelled on the Division I level at ODU and brings instant credibility to a Division III program looking to rebound from a 6-23 season.

In Friday's opener, Pabst pitched a complete-game victory and hit a grand slam in a 16-5 CNC rout.

"I had heard last summer that Tab might be coming to CNC, but I said I would believe it when I see him at our first meeting," said CNC Coach Howard Wiseman.

"I went to Nags Head later in the summer and a guy walked up to me and said he had heard Tab was transferring to CNC. When I got back and called our first team meeting, there he was.

"I went to a phone, called the admissions office, and they said he had registered as a full-time student.

"Most of our players from last year are back and it looked like we would have a winning team even before Tab showed up. Now that he's here, our situation looks even better."

Some eyebrows were raised this past fall when Pabst changed schools. It didn't look like a good career move for a pitcher with his potential professional skills to compete against non-scholarship players in Division III.

But Pabst, who hopes to be selected in the 1990 major league draft, said he was tired of the long hours he had to put in to be a student-athlete at ODU.

He battled to keep his grades up while following a routine that left little ltime for studying, and the athletic scholarship money he received, approximately $2,000, wasn't enough to make the routine worthwhile.

"We practiced every morning at 5:30 until classes began, and then we would begin practicing again in the afternoon at 3," said Pabst.

"My freshman year, we would practice until around 9 at night and I would be at home around the time Johnny Carson came on television. I didn't meet anybody except baseball players. You didn't have a social life if you played baseball.

"I didn't mind all the practicing. We needed it. But I had to get up at 4 in the morning, and I hated that drive. That was the main thing.

"Transferring to CNC was just a personal preference."

Tab met with incoming ODU baseball coach Pat McMahon twice during the summer in an attempt to receive more scholarship money. But McMahon, a former assistant coach at Mississippi State, said his predecessor, Mark Newman, had already committed the scholarship money available for the 1989-90 school year.

"We're allowed by NCAA rules to give out aid in the equivalent of 13 full scholarship grants," said McMahon. "When I got here, all of the money had been allocated.

"He had to make a tough decision, and I think the big factor was the drive over here.

"We would have loved to have him back this year. We're going to miss him."

When Pabst enrolled at CNC, he received enough financial aid to cover all of his fees, a sum that must be repaid. And he gained instant recognition as the star of the team.

But Wiseman said the newest ace fo his staff, who will also play some third base and be a designated hitter when he isn't pitching, hasn't behaved like the conquering hero.

"I've seen a lot of kids go from Division I to Division III and act real cocky, like they were playing in a jayvee game," said Wiseman. "I haven't seen that kind of attitude in Tab.

"He has a lot of friends on the team, and he has blended in real well. I plan to use him a lot this year, but I won't ruin him."

Pabst's brief baseball biography is loaded with accomplishments. He was the first freshman to play on the varsity at Kecoughtan, in any sport, and he led the team in hitting all four years.

He started at second base his freshman year at ODU and batted .295. But late that first year, Newman made a position change that may have opened the door to a professional career for Pabst.

"Some of our pitchers got in trouble late that season, grade-wise and otherwise, and Coach Newman tried me out as a relief pitcher," said Pabst.

He appeared in three games, allowed one earned run in 10 innings, and came back as a fulltime reliever last year. Pabst finished his sophomore season with an 8-2 record and seven saves.